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Puppets
Joe Gandelman & Friends I just had Joe Gandelman here for a show and the kids and parents loved him. His voices and his interaction with them had the crowd laughing continuously. Because he loves working with libraries, he has kept his price pretty reasonable. I would not hesitate to book him again. (Brenda, Mission Valley) Joe puts on a good show that's fun for all audiences. A great value if you're looking for a solid & reliable puppet performer. (Erwin) Joe was reliable and tailored his performance to what was needed. We had mainly preschool-age children and he was able to kind of "dummy down" his performance to the appropriate level. His jokes are very corny, but I guess that's what's needed for kids. I did have one parent say she thought when Joe showed the kids how the puppets worked it was a little creepy--basically, he took the head out of the puppet and it looked like a severed head on a stick! (Bill, MX) Swazzle Puppets They need almost an hour to set up and break down, but they put on a phenomenal puppet show. The "Space Bugs: Alpha" show is very entertaining, full of great music & sound effects, and the puppetry expertise is quite something to watch. Afterwards, they show the audience how the puppets work and all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on. Cool! I would caution that this particular show is for older kids (4th grade - up) because a lot of the humor & plot appeared to go over my 1st-2nd graders' heads. (Erwin, City Heights) *Was just notified by Swazzle that they will be unable to perform for us, because of the new requirements. (Brenda, Mission Valley 3/3/2010) Tom Jensen and Puppets This isn't a totally negative review. The audience really loved the show. One problem was that Tom changed the entire show, (away from the bug theme), and didn't tell me until 2 days before. Of course all of our flyers and publicity had information about the Flea Circus. And he told me when he arrived that he hadn't done the flea show all summer. The other problem was that the show was only 25 minutes long. Again, I really wish I had asked him to write that into the contract/invoice. I think $200 is pretty steep for a 25 minute show. *I have to agree that his 1/2 hour show seems a bit short, even though it was a quality program. He told me that he is planning a big Dia de los Muertos puppet show for 2009, so keep on the lookout for that. (Erwin) Extreme Rahim We had Rahim, “The Trashman”, here yesterday morning and he was hilarious! You know how sometimes really young children are reluctant to applaud. Not the case with him. Everything he did solicited applause and laughter, even from the adults in the audience. His main thing is magic, but he also threw in some ventriloquism, too, not to mention a Cosby imitation. He made a “puppet” out of one of our preschool teachers. The best? Timmy Toiletpaper! His email is arahim@cox.net, and his website is www.thetrashman.net. He charged $200.00 plus tax ($16.00). Well worth the money for a 45 minute show. Oh, his phone # is 619 584-4118.